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VARATHRON
Untrodden Corridors Of Hades

Agonia (2014)
Rating: 8.5/10

With its eerie introductory chants of gloom, Varathron’s fifth studio album comes to life. Trundling drums echo around the hidden chilly chambers, and then we’re into the pitch black pits of that place spoken of yet previously untrodden.

Eager to continue in their quest for those unbidden levels of Hell, this Greek bunch of menacing individuals finally put their ideas to wax, the result being the band’s first album for five years, following on from 2009’s Stygian Forces Of Scorn.

As expected, it’s another bestial plummet into the nocturnal realms of damp percussion, booming vocal rasps and stark, abrasive doom-laden black metal. The opening crawl of ‘Kabalistic Invocation Of Solomon’ is the perfect way to start an adventure into the bleak confines of Hades; steeped in miserable whining guitars and enriched by bombastic chants of Gothic motion, Varathron is one heavy sombre beast that instils fear within us all, especially as those haunting moans and ritualistic chants make their presence known behind the gruesome vocal traits of Stefan Necroabyssious.

While a lot of modern black metal can be accused of being coated in too much gloss, Varathron has that unkempt ability to stir the murkiest of waters by way of Haris’ silt-coated drum sticks and that foetid Goth chime of Achilleas C. and Sotiris’ devilish guitar tone. Distinctly hellish, Untrodden Corridors Of Hades lives up to its title quite literally in that it becomes a grim soundtrack as we lower ourselves – ledge by ledge – into that yawning abyss of cavernous delights.

‘Realm Of Obscure’ follows us down into the clammy depths; it oozes from each chasm crack like some squalid slug-like behemoth built upon blackened bones and burping out those rasps of evil. Again, it’s a slow motion approach of dank riffage and bleak percussion, finally upping its prowess into an abysmal grate that eventually forms into a murky speed metal din. However, when one considers that ‘Realm Of Obscure’ runs for almost eight minutes, it’s no surprise that it offers many layers which are punctuated by those breathtaking percussive jabs and cold passages of doom laden arrogance. The same can also be said for the menacing ‘Arcane Conjuring’, a real lumbering oath of a number that revels in despair and melancholy.

While I’ve always been a fan of Varathrons’s work, this affair is one that shows a band reaching its horrific peak, enabling it to rise from its gorge like some suppressed demon. As it cascades from the stone cold walls like black waterfalls of misery, I can only bathe in the ritualistic arrogance as the bone shuddering ‘Leprocious Lord’ writhes like some rotting carcass given an extra dose of life through that mouldy death metal injection. The melancholic bass line even sends a shiver down the spine of the latest corpse to be ravaged by this monster, each track introducing itself by way of the barking vocals and overall mid-paced anxiety and dread.

Believe me, if you want to traipse through those suffocating passageways of Hell then you’ve come to the right place, and by the time ‘Delve Into The Past’ has married intoxicating gloom with primitive flailing, you’ll be wishing you hadn’t sinned all those years ago. Once in the grasp of Varathron, there’s no escape.

Neil Arnold

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